


Strawberry Wine

by RemixConstellation



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: (mild an innocent), Angst, Established Relationship, F/F, Teen Romance, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 21:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16584257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemixConstellation/pseuds/RemixConstellation
Summary: He knows this is where he’s supposed to sooth her worries. Where he tells her how, they’ve known each other forever, so what’s a couple miles? How, they’ve weathered his father’s death, and her strange illness, and a town that’s slowly fading. They can handle a few planes and a couple hours difference. He wants to tell her their love is enough, that they’ll prove the adults wrong.





	Strawberry Wine

The moon is high in the sky, cicadas a distorted harmony as Merlin drive’s his mother’s truck over the bumpy road. Freya is a too-warm presence at his side, but he can’t help but grin as she nestles into his side. July is well and truly almost over, just hours left. 

“You’ll see Freya, it’ll all be fine!” He says. He’d kiss her temple, but the lake is coming into view and he’s got to watch for the pothole they’ll never fill. 

“I don’t know Merlin. You gotta leave soon, and Oxford’s a long way away.” Her voice is quiet, trembling.    
Merlin doesn’t have an answer for her. Truth is, Oxford is a whole world away. Or it might as well be. But he’s the first in their whole village to get out. To get out and get  _ paid _ for it. He reaches for her hand, and it’s so small and delicate and frail. 

“Don’t worry babe. You’ll join me next year. They’ll pick you too.” He’s a liar, and they both know it, but she smiles and leans into his shoulder. 

“Let’s not talk about goodbyes tonight. You’ve got a bottle of Gaius special strawberry wine and the evening is clear and warm.” 

Merlin pulls the truck to a stop beneath an old oak. He lets the engine idle, lets the night’s symphony sing loud. Freya slips out first. Merlin follows, tossing the key on the seat. No one’s around. No one will be. Freya sets a blanket down, and old quilted thing she probably snatched from the attic and Merlin carries the bottle and two styrofoam cups. He watches her for a moment. The moon is bright, glinting off her skin and sheathing her dark hair in a silver halo. Her gown, the same one she wore last week when she turned seventeen, is shimmery and pearlescent. When she moves, it ripples like water across her skin, like magic hanging off her shoulders. She’s a damn vision, and his heart breaks just a little watching her. 

“Do we drink first, or shall we swim?” Her whisper rings clear, and Merlin doesn’t hear the same sorrow he’d heard earlier. 

“Swim, of course, my fair lady of the lake.” He says it with laughter, and she turns to roll her eyes at him. 

“You’re jokes are as old as your name, Merlin.” But she’s slipping that magic-water gown off and Merlin has to suck in a breath. She’s so beautiful, standing there in her white lace underwear. She doesn’t seem to notice him though, as she takes off barefoot across through the honeysuckle field. 

The water seems to part for her. Then she’s dipping below and Merlin loses sight of her and his breath stills in his lungs. He knows she’ll break the surface, laughing with her hair in her face. He knows she’ll come up and mock him for still being dry. But for a brief moment, this feels like the last time he will ever see her. His last view will forever be her shy smile over her shoulder, dark hair a curtain down her back, everything shadowed by the light of the moon. It feels like goodbye, and it aches deep in his core. 

He sets his bottle down, sets the cups down, and he takes off with a “whoop” stumbling through the bushes until he is crashing into the water right as she’s coming up. God, her laughter, even muffled by the lake, is the best sound in the world. 

When he resurfaces, shoving dark hair from his eyes, her face is right there. Her smile is huge, but her eyes won’t look right at him. He puts a hand to her face and she turns, presses her lips to his palm. 

“Hey, it’s going to be okay.” He says it quiet, like speaking too loud might break the truth. 

Freya doesn’t reply. She throws her arms around his neck and rest her head on his shoulder. He can feel her lips at his neck, feel the warm tears mingling with the cool water of the lake.

He knows this is where he’s supposed to sooth her worries. Where he tells her how, they’ve known each other forever, so what’s a couple miles? How, they’ve weathered his father’s death, and her strange illness, and a town that’s slowly fading. They can handle a few planes and a couple hours difference. He wants to tell her their love is enough, that they’ll prove the adults wrong. 

But the truth is he is terrified. He’s making it out of this dying town. He’s making it out and he can’t say he’ll ever return. And as much as he tells her otherwise, Freya might never leave the corners of this stupid place. They’re both young, too young to know the future. And try as he might Merlin’s never been able to read the stars like his mother, like Gaius. 

But he has this moment and he has wine and he’s got a ticket to freedom that’s a month away. 

“C’mon Freya. Let’s try what Gaius gave us.” He kisses her above her brow and pulls her from the water. She’s reluctant to go- she’s never wanted to leave the water. And Merlin doesn’t really want to pull her from it, but they’re running out of moonlight, and that’s all they really have left. 

“School starts for you tomorrow.” He says quietly as they slip back up the path. 

She doesn’t answer him as she breaks the top of the bottle off. “You never remember a corkscrew Merlin!”  

He gives her a sheepish grin but he takes the wine. The first sip makes both of them grimace. It’s so sweet, and syrup thick, but the alcohol still burns down their throats. For a long time, they sit there, sipping the sweet drink. Freya leans in close to him. She tucks her damp body into the curve of his own, and he wraps his arms around her and breaths in the smell of her hair. 

“Did you know that not all constellations can be seen around the world?” She ask him. 

“But you can see Orion here and there.” He answers. 

“Not every season.” 

Merlin ponders this fact for a while. He ponders it while he traces the shell of her ear with his lips, while he nuzzles against her neck. There are only a couple of sips left when he answers, “We can still both see the moon.” 

It’s not enough, isn’t nearly what they want, but she burrows into him and finishes the bottle. They fall asleep there, under the stars, with July’s evening heat blanketing them and the cicadas singing a forgotten lullabye.

 

\---

 

A month later, he’s standing there at the airport and Freya is sobbing before him. She’s clutching his shirt, and begging him, “Stay, Merlin. Please, don’t go.” 

But he has too. He can’t fade here in this dusty town. So he cups her chin and kisses her long and slow and deep. She taste like strawberry wine, the last little gift Gaius had for them.    
“I’ll call, and you’ll write, and we’ll see each other at holidays.” 

But he’s got no ticket back and the job he’d found will barely cover his expenses, and Freya’s parents will never be able to send her over. Not that they trust Merlin that much anyway. 

“Hey, summer’s just a year away and Gaius promised us if the harvest is good he’ll save us a bottle.” Merlin tries to keep his smile genuine. 

But the summer has been too dry, the rain scarce and the sun scorching. He’s seen the rows and rows of brown plants without their little white flowers. Freya knows this too, knows what it means for Gaius, and her parents and her siblings. She knows what it means for the whole town and the school. 

“Summer’s just a lifetime away, Merlin, but you’ll make it back to me, yeah?”

“Always, my lady of the lake.” 

They kiss, and then he’s being rushed to boarding and he’s trying to see her for as long as he can, but Freya’s disappeared and the plane is a bit crowded and he’s got a whole new life, a whole new world awaiting him. 

 

\---

 

Six years later

 

The town is dustier then he remembers. Everything a faded brown and falling apart. It’s what he expected, and nothing he was prepared for. His mother greets him at the airport, and the drive back in her rattling truck is otherwise silent. 

She lets him off at Gaius’s store and says “Be home for dinner.” 

Gaius smiles at him. “What can I do you for, boy?” 

“I’m looking for a girl, and I want to treat her special.” 

Gaius grabs a bottle from beneath the counter, wipes off the dust and says, “You’ve always known where to find her.” 

It’s true. It’s true and it’s a long walk and the sun is fading in reds and golds when he finally sees the lake. The first cicada’s beginning to sing when she breaks the surface, dark hair forever in her face. 

“Lady of the lake!” He calls out.

She pauses, looks up in shock. Then she’s laughing as she runs out, water flying behind her. She throws herself into his arms, never minding his dry clothes. He grabs her around the waist, kisses her long and hard like he did so long ago. She taste like fresh berries, sweet  and a little tart. 

“You came back.” 

“Always. No one else makes strawberry wine as good as Gaius.”


End file.
